The reporting of “incidents” is often of great value in recognizing potential problems before the persons involved go further along the same paths, too often with tragic or unfortunate results. Early recognition of problem personalities or trends can provide opportunities for intervention and prevention of more serious activities. Incidents of all sorts occur frequently in social circumstances, such as in schools or the workplace, where stress can lead to escalation, and escalation can lead to violence. The problems relate to groups which include three of the largest segments of the population; children attending school from age five through eighteen, students attending secondary school and those employed. The latest U.S. census estimates that 73 million Americans are in school and 134 million are in the workplace. Those in charge of security and the well being of the persons in these environments often have a “need to know” about incidents which might seem minor, but can be the harbinger of events of greater consequence.
Difficulties occur in the handling of reports and in encouraging observers to make the incidents known to those in authority, however. These difficulties arise in areas of collating and correlating the incidents and in maintaining secrecy and the privacy of the persons involved, whether they are the perpetrators or the witnesses. There is frequently a fear factor among witnesses, as well as a general reluctance to get involved or to be seen as a “snitch” or troublemaker. Overcoming obstacles to reporting incidents, and providing a structure for discreet and efficient handling of reports is accordingly an organizational goal.
A major concern in modern society deals with these incidents, especially in light of trends of violence in the workplace and educational institutions. Today, violence, including sexual assault and harassment, is so prevalent in the workplace that, in many organizations it has become an accepted fact of life.
The National Center for Victims of Crime reported 709 homicides in the workplace during 1998 and 13 million workers say they are concerned about the behavior of a coworker who they think could become violent. Twenty-five percent of workers said their company offered training on workplace violence, sixty-five percent said theirs did not, and nine percent said they did not know if work had offered any training or help. Nine percent of workers reported an assault or other violent act in their workplace in the past year, and eighteen percent reported a threat or verbal intimidation, three out of every four say they are getting no guidance on how to prevent violence or how to recognize the dangers of violence [National Center for Victims of Crime, 1999].
These astounding figures suggest that more than 12 million acts of violence and 24 million threats or verbal intimidations occur each year [U.S. Department of Education and Justice, 1998]. Only 25 percent of the companies surveyed have begun, in some way, to address violence at work [Business Controls, Inc., What Every Employer Should Know About Workplace Violence, 2000]. While many companies have begun to recognize the need to address the potential for violence, it is evident that they are looking for a starting point. Anonymous employee “hotlines” have been established to meet this need. Many of the hotlines were established without thought as to who might use them and how they would be used.
In addition, most telephone hotlines and other incident reporting systems utilize a standard incident report form. As can be appreciated, the standard form may have a variety of fields that ask for information relevant to each of the different types of reports that might be made. It can also be appreciated that certain portions of this requested information are completely irrelevant or inapplicable to certain types of incident reports. Asking a reporting individual to supply some of this irrelevant and inapplicable information can, at worst, frustrate the individual enough to not complete and submit the form or, at best, annoy the individual.
In 2002, the U.S. Congress enacted the Sarbanes-Oxley Act which closely regulates corporate governance and financial practice. In particular, increased requirements were placed on corporations to collect and report information that may be relevant to shareholders.
The present inventors have recognized the need for finding ways to obtain and correlate information on preliminary incidents as a tool for preventing violence and harassment. In particular, the present inventors have recognized the need for methods for encouraging greater participation in reporting, creating a greater degree of witness confidence and safety, and collecting appropriate information relevant to the incident to be reported.